‘Tis the season to be scary! Frightening experiences can be thrilling fun in VR, especially if you bring along some friends. The Atlas already has some terror-ific experiences like the Asylum (Darkness Edition) and The Abandoned Morgue, and as we head into Halloween season, we’re looking for the scariest!

One grand prize winner will receive $10,000 (USD), an Oculus Rift + Touch bundle and a one year Sansar Super Creator Subscription. Three honorable mentions will each each receive a one year Sansar Creator Subscription.

Create a film with a work of art! Any artworks that sit on the UWA Sims in Second Life, and these include artworks created when the sims themselves were created in 2009 can be selected to feature in your machinima. You may choose individual artworks OR a collection of artworks around which to weave a story. The artwork(s) need to be a relatively significant part of the story, and not merely something glimpsed in passing... The artwork may be filmed in its current location, but it is not a must to film it there, so long at the focus of the machinima is centered around the artworks. You may communicate with the artists to film their works in other locations, and work with them on the film.

I love the frequent use of "film" for a contest that's actually digital animation of digital imagery converted to digital video. Anyway, deadline is December 31st of this year -- read all the details here.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Imagine a future in which Virtual Reality is just as commonplace as cellphones and social media are today. In this future, everyone is represented in virtual space by an avatar of their own creation. What would you look like? What would you be wearing? Would you be human? Animal? Something new altogether?

No word on whether the entries can actually be used as Sansar avatars, but I imagine that'll be an option in future updats.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Cool avatar design contest run for Steven Spielberg's upcoming adaptation of the Ernest Cline novel: Design a 3D avatar in a typical file format (.ma, .mb, .obj, .fbx, .ztl), follow the rules and submit here, and five entries win $1000 and a chance to have that model depicted in OASIS, the film's version of Ready Player's metaverse. Looks like a full-mesh version of a Second Life avatar could work as an entry (long as you send it in original file form.)

If you do submit, let me know: I'd love to feature submissions in upcoming New World Notes posts!

I would like to feature some entries here on New World Notes, so post your entry links in Comments. Bonus points if your avatar is dressed in Mad Max: Fury Road-themed formal wear and/or calls out the #Oscarsowhite controversy. Because far as I'm concerned, that was the only truly great movie that's been nominated, and the racism flare-up is the only thing worth watching the Oscars for. (But that's just me, or maybe not.)

Friday, October 23, 2015

That seriously smashing transhumanist machinima I featured yesterday is actually an entry into a massive 3D art and machinima contest sponsored by the University of Western Australia (UWA), which has a long-term presence in Second Life -- go here for all the details.

Submission deadline is very soon, October 30th, but if you wade through the dense and difficult to read rules and background, you'll notice it's pretty open-ended -- any submission that reflects the theme "'Pursue Impossible'" is acceptable, so you could probably repurpose an existing project to fit it.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

It's awards show season yet again, a time of year celebrated by fashionistas with an eye for hollywood glitz. Beautiful people parading about in beautiful clothes -- what's not to love? In celebration, blogger Harper Ganesvoort's annual Oscar Fashion Photo Contest is kicking off with a pretty impressive prize pot.

With first place set at L$10,000, second place at L$7,500, third place at L$5,000, and four honorable mentions at L$1,500 apiece, competition is sure to be fierce, so keep reading for the details!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Second Life is nearing its official 10 year anniversary (even I can't believe it's been that long), and the SL10B team is running a photography contest to help celebrate. Theme is “Looking Forward, Looking Back”, which tempts me to go through my screenshots of 2003. Go here to read all the rules and submission guidelines.